The Shakes – Shine

It must be fun being in a band with Ruaidhri Owens, Damian Smith and Patrick Taylor. Not only do you have a trio of great drinking mates but from time to time they make pretty good music for drinking to. Since they eloped from the North down to Dublin the Shakes have been taking a devil may care attitude to the rock and roll lifestyle. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t well at least they’ll have some good chat up lines to fall back on. Their stated mission is to break up the singer songwriter scourge that has afflicted their adopted city for much too long. And songs like ‘Shine’ do really want to make you throw some small men with perms into the nearest canal. Take the attitude of a snotty punk and mix it with the pop sensibility of a freshly shaved Gaz Coombes and you get some idea where ‘Shine’ is coming from. Now if only they went to bed at a reasonable hour they could possibly have it in them to make acoustic warbling a thing of the past. KD